A Corner in Piggly Wiggly (1959)
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A Corner in Piggly Wiggly (1959)
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Re: A Corner in Piggly Wiggly (1959)
#2There's a really good story on the stock corner of Piggly Wiggly in "Business Adventures", a book that Bill Gates said is his favorite business book.
Re: A Corner in Piggly Wiggly (1959)
#3> The stock went up wildly, reaching a high of 124. At this point the Exchange suspended further trading & postponed the short sellers' delivery deadline. This resulted in eventual bankruptcy for Saunders & he was finally forced to step out of the Pigp]y [sic] Wiggly Company.
Bizarre. What grounds did they have for doing this?
Prima facie there are some similarities between this and the GME situation, I wonder if the outcomes will be the same.
Re: A Corner in Piggly Wiggly (1959)
#4> The stock went up wildly, reaching a high of 124. At this point the Exchange suspended further trading & postponed the short sellers' delivery deadline. This resulted in eventual bankruptcy for Saunders & he was finally forced to step out of the Pigp]y [sic] Wiggly Company. Bizarre. What grounds did they have for doing this? Prima facie there are some similarities between this and the GME situation, I wonder if the…
Back-room deals are the backbone of America, from Politics to Business.
Re: A Corner in Piggly Wiggly (1959)
#5Gamestop made me think of this. The moral of the story is that when you beat Wall Street at their own game, they will change the rules on you so they win anyway. Something to be cautious about in the current situation.
Re: A Corner in Piggly Wiggly (1959)
#6Gamestop made me think of this. The moral of the story is that when you beat Wall Street at their own game, they will change the rules on you so they win anyway. Something to be cautious about in the current situation.
>they will change the rules on you so they win anyway
Are you referring to how several popular brokerages prevented customers from opening new positions? That's due to them unable to fulfill deposit requirements on such volatile stocks, not because of some conspiracy by wall st to "change the rules on you so they win anyway".
see: https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-01-29/reddit..., under heading "Why did Robinhood stop them?".
Re: A Corner in Piggly Wiggly (1959)
#7Gamestop made me think of this. The moral of the story is that when you beat Wall Street at their own game, they will change the rules on you so they win anyway. Something to be cautious about in the current situation.
>they will change the rules on you so they win anyway Are you referring to how several popular brokerages prevented customers from opening new positions? That's due to them unable to fulfill deposit requirements on such volatile stocks, not because of some conspiracy by wall st to "change the rules on you so they win anyway". see: https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-01-29/reddit... , under heading "Why di…
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Re: A Corner in Piggly Wiggly (1959)
#8> The stock went up wildly, reaching a high of 124. At this point the Exchange suspended further trading & postponed the short sellers' delivery deadline. This resulted in eventual bankruptcy for Saunders & he was finally forced to step out of the Pigp]y [sic] Wiggly Company. Bizarre. What grounds did they have for doing this? Prima facie there are some similarities between this and the GME situation, I wonder if the…
I wish there were more details about how this resulted in bankruptcy. Was it an eventual lack of ability to pay for the interest on the loan he used to borrow the stock, or did he fail to corner it, so other sellers ended up letting the shorters out of their position, and his shares plumetted?
Re: A Corner in Piggly Wiggly (1959)
#9Gamestop made me think of this. The moral of the story is that when you beat Wall Street at their own game, they will change the rules on you so they win anyway. Something to be cautious about in the current situation.
There's a general moral of the story here that isn't specific to Wall Street. If you think you've got a magic hack for some system, don't forget that the system might not be immutable, and that many people will consider the spirit of the rules not just the letter of them (even if this means changing the letter of them).
It's fairly similar to the risk of building a business by adding one feature to someone else's platform.
Re: A Corner in Piggly Wiggly (1959)
#10There's a really good story on the stock corner of Piggly Wiggly in "Business Adventures", a book that Bill Gates said is his favorite business book. https://www.gatesnotes.com/Books/Business-Adventures
When I saw this thread "Business Adventures" was the first thing I thought of. I bought a copy when it appeared on one of Bill Gate's summer reading lists. It's a great book. The story of the Piggly Wiggly stock corner is great, as is the story of the creation of the Xerox machine. I think I lent my copy to a co-worker who I'm fairly certain never read it. They also never gave it back. Oh well.
For anyone looking for a book in a similar vein I recommend "The Deltoid Pumpkin Seed" by John McPhee.